Coast Guard’s continues attack against members that report rape.

In the latest rounds of attacks against Coast Guard members that reported rape, a Coast Guard veteran that reported a rape while on Active Duty was barred from entering a Coast Guard base. She was never given a reason why.

HS2 Federico Sanchez first reported to the rape survivor that she was banned. The survivor tried to access the base after receiving an invitation to attend an on-base meeting. HS2 Sanchez was not able to tell the survivor why she was banned, instead, he told her “you know why” while keeping her out in a rainy and cold February in Boston and treated her like a criminal.

Retired Coast Guard members rushed to the survivors’ side, including a retired E-10, to offer her support and guidance on what to do. Several retirees, including a Chief and a CWO also took it upon themselves to help the survivor ban to be overturned but without much success. The survivor and others has since been trying to receive answers on why she was banned from the base and have been given the runaround without anyone really knowing why aside from she reported a rape. Calls made throughout District 1 and BSU Boston to gain insight on why a rape survivor was barred from entering a military installation despite being invited in was unsuccessful. Nobody at the time of publishing this article was willing to take accountability for this victim-blaming act.

MyDutytoSpeak.com was able to find out that the rapist that committed this felony crime against this woman is allowed to go on base as long as he has a sponsor and proper ID.

Reporting a rape should not ban a survivor from entering a Coast Guard base if they are otherwise on an approved guest list for a meeting on base.

The only ‘zero-tolerance’ against sexual assault that the Coast Guard has shown is against those that report rape.

10 thoughts on “Coast Guard’s continues attack against members that report rape.”

I am sorry to hear that she continues to be re-victimized. The right way to handle this case was for HS1 Sanchez to tell her that he was not sure why she was barred from the base, to apologize and to follow up with her. His smart ass “you know why” comment does not help the Coast Guard, his reputation and most importantly the healing of a woman that already lived through the unthinkable.

I heard of something similar a while back regarding Petty Officer Sanchez. This is either the same case which would have given him way more than enough time to do what is right and offer his apologies or it is another case and we have an absolute woman hating, angry man serving in the Coast Guard. Either way he needs to go before he does this to another woman.

Does anyone else feel sick knowing that rapist are allowed on the base but not victims? People make mistakes but it is the lack of apology that proves to me that Sanchez has zero remorse and would probably do it again.

If he comes out and say sorry, I made a mistake. I confused her with somebody else, followed orders, or was not feeling well that day and screwed up I doubt that you guys would have even published this post. Him doing nothing means he’ll do it again and again and again to many different rape victims.

The latest is that the survivor herself called HS1 Sanchez today to get answers directly from him on why he did what he did. She left a message but I HIGHLY doubt he has the integrity to do what is right. He fucked up majorly and now he is probably too much of a coward to call and offer an explanation to this woman that was severely beaten and later raped and later invited back on base only to be told by this woman hating man, angry coward that she is not allowed to go back on base.

Not even given a rape victim an explanation. Rape culture at it finest.

Coast Guard Boston is by far the worst Coast Guard unit in the entire base when it comes to how women and sexual assault survivors are treated. The institutional sexism and how embedded the rape culture is and has been won’t improve until it starts being led by a Coast Guard leader that works with the model of human rights and feminism.

Over a year ago an Active Duty Coast Guardswoman that being mistreated by men of the Coast Guard Boston was found sleeping in the lobby of the Cambridge’s office of the Military Rape Crisis Center. This is something that Melissa has spoken about several times in her campus tour. Since the Coast Guard barracks was not a safe place for the woman to return, and she lacked BAH, the Military Rape Crisis Center found a domestic violence shelter where the victim was able to stay in until she was eventually discharged from service. The men that were abusing her all received a free pass from our buddy Husak, the woman lost her career.

A Coast Guardsman, one that is on the side of rape survivors, witnessed a sexual assault on the base of Coast Guard Boston. When he went to report the sexual assault to CGIS, Christine Sullivan (work life) and the SARC he was threatened to keep quiet about what he witnessed or else he’ll be the one punished. Imagine that, a man that witnessed a sexual assault and went to do the right thing by trying to report it was threatened by the very people that *should* be there for the victim. The men that committed the acts of sexual assault against this woman was given a free pass. https://mydutytospeak.com/2011/01/11/a-witness-speaks-out/

In yet another case, a woman reported rape on CGC Seneca based out of Boston. When she reported it help was not called right away. When CGIS finally got involved she was called “a liar”. The Command on CGC Seneca allowed the crew to further abuse this woman. She lost her career. Her rapist was given a free pass. The victim was kicked out of service. https://mydutytospeak.com/2011/02/01/rape-on-coast-guard-cutter-seneca/

-the victim is always at fault. Always, no matter what, the victim is at fault. In a rape culture world it is the rape victim fault for being barred from the base and whatever she may or may not have done (and remember the rape culture is notorious for lying so what they say she have done is probably not true) is in the Coast Guard’s eyes worst that a rape because why else would the victim be barred but not the man that committed this heinous felony against this woman? Active Duty Coast Guard members that reported rape are not even allowed at the Coast Guard Boston holiday party: https://mydutytospeak.com/2011/12/15/coast-guard-holiday-party-rape-survivors-not-invited/

-Refusal to help the rape survivor. As you can see from the above article about the man that did try to help a rape survivor and was told not to. I even heard that the case regarding the Active Duty Coast Guardswoman and the car incident that members of the Coast Guard tried to contact the victim only to eventually be told to not help her. A Chief recently contacted one of the rape victims on this page AFTER he left the service. He is living with the remorse of not helping her when she was in. He was told to not contact the victim after recognizing one of the woman who shared her story on her. Told to NOT contact the victim because he had information that could have been helpful to her.

Being told to not help a victim, being told to not contact a victim or not returning phone calls from a victim if it means it’ll help in her healing/closure process is all part of Fuck the Victim, she should not have reported rape, let further punish her–we living in a rape culture mentality. It is inhumane but as long as we have rape apologists running Coast Guard Boston nothing is going to change.

No wonder that from January 1st to July 31st of 2011, 217 Active duty Coast Guards members from District 1 received some sort of assistance from the Military Rape Crisis Center. TWO HUNDREDS AND SEVENTEEN ACTIVE DUTY COAST GUARDS MEMBERS FROM DISTRICT 1 sought help for rape or sexual assault. That is a whole lot of people. “Why do the majority of the 217 men and women that came forward in just the past 7 months feel that they are being failed by the system that should be protecting them?” Good question that the Coast Guard needs to answer. https://mydutytospeak.com/2011/08/03/what-is-going-on-with-district-1-in-the-coast-guard/

In other words is HS1 Sanchez going to call this woman back? Absolutely fucking no. He been told that this woman was at fault for what happened, that she did something absolutely horrible, that she is crazy, wants revenge, angry. He was probably told by legal and his command to not call her probably even told him to stay away from this page. People are going to come out of nowhere and say that they know her, that she is this absolutely horrible person without anything to back up their claims. They probably even consider her trying to get answers as something inappropriate. How dare she question the abuse! It is called the rape culture and it is so fucking predictable.

Isa is 100% right. Simple test if you are victim blaming and contributing to the rape culture:

When you read the articles and testimonies on this website and others do you.

A. Feel that people are trying to slander the military. You feel that it is an attack on the service and are angry that people are saying such bad things because of what it can do to the reputation of the Coast Guard.

or

B. Are angry that rape survivors are treated so badly. You try to offer support and work towards helping them get justice. As bad as the stories are you are happy that survivors now have an outlet to express themselves in a way that has been proven to be beneficial to processing trauma?

if you answer A you most likely are a rape apologist.

The testimonies on here have been used by the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans’ Affairs for training purposes. The Coast Guard is the only one that is against helping rape survivors. More on how these testimonies are being used to help improve the military and treatment: http://panayiotabertzikis.com/panayiotabertzikis/my-duty-to-speak/

When a woman reports rape in the Coast Guard she has a 92% chance of being kicked out.
When a woman leaves the service she is not welcomed back on base.

When a woman reports rape in the Coast Guard she is most likely blamed for the assault.
When a woman leave the service and is not welcomed back it is because of something that she did. She is once again blamed for the injustice done to her. In the Coast Guard eyes what she did (reported rape, spoke out, protested to help end the rape culture, etc..) is worst than raping somebody.

When a woman reports rape in the Coast Guard the rapist sees no negative consequences for raping a woman. The rapist is often promoted or handed an honorable discharge. Less than 2% of all reported rape actually end up on trial.
When a woman leave the service she is treated like a criminal and barred from base. The rapist sees no negative consequences for raping a woman and is allowed back on base.

The Coast Guard is doing to this woman what they probably did to her while she was in service and is probably doing to hundreds of other women that report rape. This should be to no shock to anybody. It only proves once again everything that survivors of rape in the Coast Guard has been saying for years. The blame the victim culture in the Coast Guard is alive and well.

If anyone ever has any doubt about the mistreatment of Coast Guard rape survivors one only needs to direct them to this post and the dozen others that basically say the same exact thing; a woman report a rape and they are viewed as criminals.